Cezanne Drawings Donated To Philadelphia Museum

December 25, 1987|By Lucinda Fleeson, Knight-Ridder Newspapers.

PHILADELPHIA — A major collection of pencil drawings by French impressionist Paul Cezanne has been given to the Philadelphia Museum of Art by publisher Walter H. Annenberg. Museum director Anne d`Harnoncourt called the donation ``clearly one of the most important gifts the museum has received in the last several decades.``

The 81-page collection is from two small sketchbooks used by Cezanne throughout his life as an artist. The drawings show the full development of his style, from his early period to his last decade. About 20 pages contain drawings on both sides.

Sotheby`s auction house had made a conservative estimate that the collection was worth $4.5 million, Annenberg said from his home near Palm Springs, Calif., but he believed the drawings would sell for $5 to $6 million.

Last summer, according to D`Harnoncourt, a single page from a Cezanne sketchbook from the estate of art historian Kenneth Clark was sold at Sotheby`s in London for $62,000.

Annenberg said he gave the museum the gift because he had no room to exhibit the drawings properly, and he believed that they belonged in the public realm.

According to D`Harnoncourt, 18 of Cezanne`s sketchbooks are known to have survived. The books were taken apart in the early part of the 20th Century by Cezanne`s son, Paul, but many were kept together as sets.

Museum officials said the Annenberg sketches date from the early 1870s to after 1900, and not only include the entire range of Cezanne`s subjects but also show the full development of his style, from the passionate early sketches to the economical and rhythmic drawings of his last decade.